SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— K. 619 



boreal time, and early in the succeeding period, the land connexion of the British 

 Isles with the continent was severed and coincident with this a change of climate. 

 In these deposits are Neolithic remains. 



Atlantic : Climate warm, moist, oceanic. Peat period. This change of climate 

 provided conditions for extensive peat formation throughout N.W. Europe, including 

 the British Isles, and had a profound effect on the forest vegetation. Peat developed 

 over extensive upland as well as lowland areas and, invading the forest, eventually- 

 destroyed and buried its remains. On the drier, calcareous, and better drained 

 areas unfavourable for peat formation, e.g. areas occupied by beech forest, no remains 

 were preserved, and their history is in consequence very incomplete. Thus our 

 present forests are largely relics of this boreal period. 



Sub-boreal : Climate warm, dry, continental. A brief recurrence of pine in many 

 parts of northern Europe on drying surface of peat. Late Neolithic and Bronze Age 

 remains. 



Sub-atlantic : Climate moist and cold. Renewed peat formation in which are 

 Romano-British remains. 



Dr. Marion I. Newbigin. — Man and the Forests of Europe : the Pre- 

 industrial Period. 



The paper begins by pointing out : (I) that the greater part of the surface of Europe 

 is climatically suited for tree-growth, and was tree-clad till man interfered ; (2) that, 

 as compared with similar latitudes in North America and Asia, the number of 

 indigenous, forest-forming tree species is small ; (3) that the surface was very largely 

 denuded by man of its original forest cover before timber entered largely into world 

 commerce, that is, before the industrial period ; (4) that re-afforestation has been 

 practised on a considerable scale in parts — but in parts only — of the Continent, and 

 that the reconstituted woodlands differ as a rule both in composition and in character 

 from the original forests. These facts are then considered in relation to the land- 

 forms and relief of Europe with the object of showing the ways in which these influenced 

 both the original characters and distribution of the forests, and man's attitude towards 

 them, alike in its destructive and conservative aspects. 



Prof. Dudley Stamp. — The Forests of Europe : the Post-industrial Period. 



Survey of the extent and importance of European forests at the commencement 

 of the industrial period. Changes in the economic importance of forests consequent 

 upon industrialisation. The disappearance of old and the rise of new timber-using 

 industries. The increase in exploitation and the rise in prices considered in the 

 principal countries of Europe. Survey of the European position prior to the Great 

 War. Analysis of the present timber resources, production, consumption and 

 conservation of the leading European States comparatively considered. The prospects 

 of a timber famine. 



Mr. J. M. Murray. — Distribution of Trees in Old Peat Mosses. 



Dr. H. M. Steven. — The Forest Nursery. 



Saturday, September 8. 



Excursion to Benmore Estate. 

 Excursion to Ben Lui. 



Monday, September 10. 



Mr. J. Walton. — On the Roots of some Species of Equisetum. 



Several of the earlier investigators of the genus Equisetum have remarked on the 

 presence of large as well as the better-known small, fibrous roots on the rhizomes of 

 Equisetum limosum. 



